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After a year in the Land of Coffee I am headed back to
Canada. I suppose you might want to know what happened
to me in my final weeks so here it is. I had almost a
month of time off before I returned so decided to
occupy myself with doing as little as possible. I mean
how often is it you have several weeks in Costa Rica,
your rent is paid and nothing to do? I spent several
days simply relaxing, reading, "catching a few rays",
and just generally doing what we all wish we could do
in a tropical paradise. Okay, well, it was in the
middle of the city, but give me a little latitude
here.
Next on the agenda was a trip to Puerto Viejo, on the Atlantic side of the country, to go scuba diving. Now, I hadn't been under the waves for almost 2 years so made plans to go with a friend from work. Yan is from Malaysia and has around 50 or so dives under her belt, pretty good track record. We chose a Tuesday to drive out from San Jose, after being in traffic for almost 2 1/2 hours we were ready to give up and head out to one of the beaches on the Pacific side instead. There was everything from traffic volume, to a visiting president from Columbia, to ICE (the government run telephone company) strikes slowing things down. Just a side note, ICE has gone on strike at least 3 times since I moved there. This last time they got pretty much all they were asking for (at least of the major demands) and still stayed on strike for another week, I think their ulterior motive was to disrupt things as much as possible to help prevent the privatization of the telephone industry. Anyhow, we made it out of San Jose and headed down the highway for a scenic 4 hour drive through the Braulio Carrillo National Park and along the Atlantic coast. We arrived a little later than anticipated but found a hotel, one with a live in pizoate, a furry animal resembling an anteater with a short snout. This one had a thing for Yan's luggage and we had to chase it out of our room. Yan had been raving about "camarones de rios", which I interpreted to be river shrimp; unfortunately they were out of season so we settled for overcooked tilapia, disappointing. Afterwards we booked our scuba dive with the dive shop she recommended. Later Yan received a call about a job interview for Thursday morning, the day we had planned to return so we decided to cut our trip short. She was going to visit some friends in the morning while I went for a dive as she didn't want to be overtired for the drive home. With this in mind we turned in early. The next day I got dropped off at the dive shop for a shallow (only 35 feet) beach dive with the dive master. Despite the shallow dive I got a National Geographic moment halfway into the dive when we observed a pale Hawkfish chowing down on a small soft-shell crab. In addition I saw a Golden Spotted eel, an immature Damphrey (about the size of my thumb and a vivid dark blue colour), and a type of sea fungus (who's name I have since forgotten). After the dive while I was waiting for my ride I chatted with one of the dive masters, who turned out to be from a small town near where I grew up in the Okanagan Valley, small world. Yan and I had a nice lunch at a cafe on the beach and headed back to San Jose. I must note that I was quite taken with Puerto Viejo as there was a large cat population, and consequently a low cockroach and rat population. The next day my only goal was to arrange for the one and only "touristy tour" that I planned on taking. Most of my visitors went on this one and proclaimed it to be worth the money. This was the infamous 4 in 1 Tour. So with a good night's sleep I woke for a bus at 6:30AM on the Friday morning. The tour group was small, consisting of a family of 5 from Honduras and a couple from California. This made for a very interactive trip. We first headed off to a local coffee plantation to see what the fields looked like and to learn a bit about the coffee growing seasons, if it had been the harvest season we could have tried the beans themselves but that had been over for 4 months. Next was a stop for a "typico" breakfast of fruit, eggs, gallo pinto (beans and rice), and of course coffee. Poas Volcano was our destination; this one is supposedly the largest crater in Costa Rica with a small, pea green, extremely acidic lake in the bottom of it. I say supposedly since it was only a big white mass of fluffy clouds when we got there. About what I expected since I did go during the rainy season. After a stop in the souvenir shop (naturally) we headed off for the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. Here we entered the humungous net enclosure where they bred numerous varieties of butterflies indigenous to the country. Next was the open air hummingbird garden where numerous feeders attracted dozens of the little birds alongside the informative message boards describing the different species and colours. Next was a hike through the trees to the waterfalls, several waterfalls of varying heights and patterns could be seen from the stairs down to the waiting tour bus. A quick trip back up to the lodge and we were all ready for the buffet lunch that was waiting there. I sat with the two younger boys from Honduras and had a great time listening to them tell me about the cartoons they see in back home and hearing about their city, Tala. The last Tico cat I met was here and was very affectionate, especially after a treat of a little cooked chicken. Next we had a 1 1/2 hour trip to another town called Puerto Viejo on the Sarapiqui River. Here we boarded a tourist boat and motored up the river in search of wildlife. We discovered little tree bats about the size of golf balls clinging to the base of a tree, noisy howler monkeys, active spider monkeys and a couple really lazy iguanas. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to bring my binoculars so, even though the monkeys were too far away for my camera to take decent pictures, I was able to "get up close and personal" with my eyes. After docking we headed off to the Braulio Carrillo National Park (lucky me got to see it again) for a quick drive through before it got too dark. After that we headed back to San Jose. During the trip I had befriended the couple from California and suggested a light supper of chicken wings at Macs, in case I hadn't mentioned it the wings there are pretty tasty. My next few days were spent packing, relaxing some more (I know, isn't my life so hard?), and generally saying goodbye to the people and places I had come to like. I wandered downtown a few times to take in the sights I had already seen; as well I spent one afternoon in Lynnethe's company doing some serious souvenir shopping. We tried to see the Jade Museum that day, however, just my luck, it was closed for renovations. I managed to pick up some artwork, some gifts for my family and a hammock (I have been eyeing them for a couple months now). On the Thursday before I left I headed out to the Jazz Cafe where I had spent a number of evenings enjoying some truly outstanding live music, to hear JK and the Zuzu Men. Of course before this I had to make my final appearance at the monthly Consulate party, nothing notable happened so I won't bore you with the details. However, once securely ensconced at the bar in the Jazz Cafe I endeavoured to drink them out of red wine, I was unsuccessful, but had a great time trying. :) The music was great fun and we met an Irishman who was in Costa Rica doing a study for a company investing in the upgrading of the roads (something very long overdue). Friday was my official "going away" party, once again at the Jazz Cafe. It was a little more subdued and I got a chance to say goodbye to a number of co-workers and friends. Saturday found me in a flurry of final packing as I was moving up to another friend's place, she lives close to the airport and graciously allowed me to inhabit her spare room for a couple days. Sunday was the Canada Day picnic, which naturally, I had to attend. We had a great day of sunshine, Canadian food, beer, and country western music (I know, there should have been a Cape Breton band too). All too soon the day ended and we headed home. I completed my preparations for an early flight and sank into a short sleep. Traveling back to Canada was draining as I had an early flight (7AM) to Houston, arriving at noon. After 1 1/2 hours of processing through Security, Customs and Immigration, Security, Baggage rechecking, more Security (let's just say they must have checked my passport, ticket and or customs forms at least 4 times). I still had a 7 hour wait until my 8:30PM flight to Calgary. I managed to catch an hour or so nap on the floor at the gate, and then killed some time doing those things you do when waiting for a plane (buying batteries, having lunch, shopping in the duty-free, reading, etc). Luckily the flight was on time and not very full. I was fortunate to have an empty row so was able to stretch out (I am rather short remember) across the 3 seats and take another 2 hour nap. Upon arriving on my native soil I had to kiss the ground, where upon my friends insisted that I was too giddy and desperately in need of sleep. I managed to prevail upon them to allow me my first Slurpee in a year before tossing my exhausted carcass on the chesterfield. This ends my year in Costa Rica. I hope you all haven't been too offended at my casual reflections on Tico lifestyles, nor too bored by the length of some of them. It's time for me to settle down and find a new job back home in Vancouver. Once I finish up my visits in Alberta I will be heading back to Lotus Land, so those of you out there be prepared for the return of the native. :) |
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